Page 65 of Virtue & Vengeance

His shoulders.

His perfect jaw.

I couldn’t see his eyes from this far away, but if I closed my eyes, I could see them clearly as day.

Glittering emeralds.

He was beautiful, but he was treacherous. He was everything I never knew I wanted, but he also everything I could never have.

An hour later, he began to look at his phone. I could see in the rigidness of his shoulders that he was angry that I hadn’t shown up.

“Is he ever going to fucking leave?” Allen hissed, rubbing at his greasy forehead with dirty fingers.

I worried that if Zander didn’t leave soon, Allen was going to get angry and pull his gun. Maybe even do something like shoot Zander from across the way.

I didn’t trust him. He was obviously on drugs. People on drugs only cared about two things.

More drugs.

And money.

Both of which were possibly nestled beneath the car Zander was leaning against.

I needed to do something to get him to leave.

“Maybe if I call Empire Sevens and have them call him. I could tell them to have him meet me at Kennedy’s place. He can’t drive his car and the Oldsmobile. He’ll leave, and that could buy us some time.”

Allen thought it over for a bit, his wide eyes full of paranoia as he scanned the area around us. Relief filled me when he conceded.

“Fine. If you think it’ll work. Don’t pull any shit, Eden.”

He handed over his cell, apparently forgetting about caller ID showing up. Either that, or he just didn’t care anymore. Quickly, I dialed the number for Empire Sevens. The same receptionist as before answered.

“Hey, this is Eden Vaughn again, could you connect me to Mr. Hale please?”

She sighed on the other end. “Mr. Hale isn’t in at the moment. I could take a message, or you could just call his cell number.”

I was hoping she would say that. I knew Zander wasn’t there. That was the point.

“Yes. Could you please call his cell and let him know that something came up and I can’t meet at six. I’m at Kennedy’s, and I got caught up. Tell him I need him to come to Kennedy’s right away. It’s an emergency.”

Again, she sighed. “You’re just full of emergencies today, aren’t you?”

“Listen!” I snapped. “This is serious. Either call him and pass on the message or lose your job. It’s up to you. Also, I could do without the sarcasm. Thanks. Have a nice day.”

And then I hung up.

All I could do was hope she would call him.

Allen and I watched from across the way as Zander remained against the Oldsmobile. Five minutes later, he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his cell. He answered it with an angry expression, and then he sat and listened.

Within seconds, he was hanging up and making his way over to his car. I exhaled the breath I’d been holding when he sped away.

“Whatever you’re going to do, you better do it now. Once he gets to Kennedy’s and realizes I’m not there, he’ll be back.”

Allen’s eyes scanned the area around us once again before he popped the driver’s side door open. When he climbed out of the car, I thought for sure he was going to leave me untied and alone. If he did, I was going to make a run for it.

Unfortunately, he didn’t. Instead, he came around to my side of the car, pulled open the door, and tied my legs together before tying my wrists together.

“Don’t even think about screaming. I won’t be gone long.”

He shut the door behind him, leaving me tied up in the car. I watched as he quickly ran across the road and toward the Oldsmobile. The entire time, he continuously scanned the area around him as if he were waiting for someone to attack.

Once he reached the side of the car, he knelt to the ground and began to reach under the car as he searched for what we had come for. He moved around and even crawled beneath the vehicle at one point. And when he started back toward me empty-handed with a furious expression, I knew my time was up.

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